Dog is Dead

Having released a compilation EP of their self released singles, started work on their debut album and released new single Two Devils ‘A twisted, romantic tale about the burden of guilt in a relationship’ Dog Is Dead have had a phenomenal past 12 months. Not only have the band gained overwhelming support from their fans, the likes of BBC 6 Music, XFM and Q Radio they’ve also landed our coveted cover. It’s also probable that you’ve also seen them playing themselves in TV show ‘Skins’ and on the stages of an array of festivals and gigs.

With their current tour being their biggest yet, the band will have headlined shows in every crevice of the country. Reflecting on the past 12 months we caught up with Rob Milton at their recent O2 Leicester to talk about the exciting times ahead for this indie pop quintet.

Is this your first visit to Leicester?
It is our first headline show of our own. We’re only 25 minutes away from here so it’s a bit strange that we haven’t gotten round to visiting in our own time. Although everywhere seems to shut down in Leicester when you’re at a certain stage, like The Charlotte.

Are you proud to be coming back on your own headline tour to a venue this size?
Yes. It’s going great, we’re only on the 6th date in but we’re getting a decent crowd, lovely people and it’s a great venue! We’ve also got 4 different support bands.

Did you choose the support acts for this tour?
Yes. It’s all up to us. That’s the great thing about getting to this stage and having your own tour. We’ve paid our dues and have been lucky enough to be picked on supports tours and now it’s our own thing and we get to pick and choose on our own bands. We thought we’d take the friendliest people with us, the first two bands are old friends and the other 2 are people whose music we are really interested in.

You’re playing over 30 dates. Are you looking forward to this?
This is a huge, huge tour and we’ve never really done anything like it. It’s going to be pretty nuts and every place is going to be completely different which is a great thing. We’re doing a tour of the highlands in the middle of this and we’re going to be out on remote islands, which is going to be completely different. I don’t really know what to expect. It’s good that it keeps us on our toes every night. Every crowd has been completely different, even in neighbouring counties.

Have you started getting outrageous with your riders yet?
Our rider is really lame. We generally get everything we ask for because we don’t ask for much.

No red only M&M’s then?
We did actually ask for a folded up wooden table casually leaned against a wall. And obviously the great people at Leicester Academy have sorted that right out for us.

Tell me about the new single?
It’s called 2 Devils and it’s the darkest shade of Dog Is Dead. It’s a bit strange and it’s a twisted, romantic tale about the burden of guilt in a relationship. It’s a bit more of a morbid side to us, to what we do. A different flavour. We made a nice video about it with a horror director who got really excited about some of the concepts that we put forward, and that ended up being really nice and a bit freaky and weird and quite beautiful at the same time. We’re really pleased with that. It should be cool.

I wanted to do something really weird so came up with some ideas of a stop motion esque, freaky, nosferatu horror film. This girl who had just won a VMA for a horror really wanted to do it so we took it to the next level. The people on the set just spent hours making this old warehouse looking amazing.

A lot of the music that you make is quite dark. Do you find that a lot of it is autobiographical?
I find it semi autobiographical and I like to paint pictures and tell stories but at the same time get that little bit of aggression and emotion out there. I like music to be fun and twisted and in the current climate we wanted to talk about things that people aren’t necessarily talking about. Painting pictures and telling stories that people aren’t exploring and pushing. I think it’s something that we’re learning. We’ve recently felt that we shouldn’t be holding back on any kind of contextual stuff.

What are your plans for later this year?
We’ve got our first festival announcement which is Evolution festival and that’s the first of many. We’re also coming to Leicester for The Summer Sundae Weekender; we don’t really want a free weekend in the summer. We want to be playing as many as we can in Europe and the U.K. We’re going to be finishing our debut album after the tour (we’re 70% of the way there) and then putting it out in the autumn.

Are there many tracks from the live shows that have made it onto the album?
We’ve been a band for quite a while now in whatever format and we’ve tied together those songs from the last 4 years and the last 4 months kind of thing that we’ve written and making that into a decent body of work that we’re proud of. That reflects what we’re about at this time but is also true to Dog is Dead over its formation. That’s going to be the most difficult task.

No plans to go back to studying? How do your parents feel about you being in the band at the moment?
Well this is gap year three. We’ve gotten to do all of those things that people on gap years do as well which is travel to different places. We’ve actually worked really hard over the last few years and now we’ve gotten to a really great stage and that’s a blessing. As for our parents I think that they’re quite happy.

Finally if I had to write a book about the band what should I call it?
That’s a really good question. I’d say Suck Out – The Dog is Dead Years.

Dog Is Dead return to Leicester to play the Summer Sundae Weekender in August.

Photography by Amy Brammall www.amybrammall.com